The Ukrainian Center for Evaluation of the Quality of Education canceled the large-scale assessment for fourth-graders in 2025

The Ukrainian Center for the Assessment of the Quality of Education (UCEA) decided to postpone the large-scale implementation of the assessment for all fourth-graders in 2025. This decision was made after analyzing the results of the pilot testing, which took place in May 2024 in 39 schools across Ukraine.

In the context of educational innovations, the issue of implementing new standards is always relevant, and refusing to hastily implement them at the national level allows you to avoid potential mistakes and improve the system.

Analysis of pilot testing

In May 2024, a pilot test was conducted for fourth-grade students, which covered about 2,000 students in 39 schools across Ukraine. The testing included three main subjects: mathematics, Ukrainian language and reading. The purpose of this test was to check how the new evaluation system works in real conditions and to determine its effectiveness.

Main results and identified problems

The results of the pilot test showed several key aspects that need improvement:

• Accuracy of testing. It was found that some tasks do not provide sufficient accuracy in assessing students’ knowledge, which raised doubts about their objectivity and fairness.
• Adaptation to the educational context. The testing revealed that some elements of the evaluation model do not fully correspond to the specifics of the Ukrainian educational system, which may negatively affect the results.
• Feedback from teachers. Teachers found difficulties in using the test results to correct the educational process, which emphasizes the need to adapt the system to the real conditions of school life.

The next steps of UTSOYAO

Instead of rushing to implement a new assessment system at the national level in 2025, the UCOYAO decided to focus on improving the model. This includes analysis of identified problems and improvement of test tasks to increase their accuracy and compliance with Ukrainian realities.

Plans for 2025

The second stage of piloting, planned for 2025, will once again test the updated model in real conditions. This testing phase will provide additional data for further improvement of the system and help avoid errors that could negatively affect thousands of students.

The decision to postpone the national testing in 2025 reflects the desire of the Ukrainian National Academy of Sciences for a high-quality and well-thought-out implementation of the reform. This makes it possible to avoid haste and to ensure that the new evaluation system is effective, fair and corresponds to the realities of Ukrainian education.